Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Yet another day of it.

Yesterday both the farmer and I were at the Physiotherapist for our six - weekly manipulation. With the farmer it is shoulders, so that he has little after effects. With me it is knee and ankle which means that for a day or two I am hobbling about like an old woman (don't even think it, let alone say it) - you have to get worse before you can get better, so to speak.

So today it has meant hobbling round the supermarket and then having a shorter walk with Tess. But all this seems quite unimportant, trivial in fact, when put against the fact that for the third day running it is wall-to-wall sunshine and although the temperature is only seven everything in Nature is pretending it is Spring already. (a month to the first day of Spring, so anything can happen in between - and probably will).

Going to the supermarket, the views over the Vale of York were magnificent; the silver birches on the road side looked ready to burst into leaf (yes, I am imagining it) and the deciduous larches were beginning to change colour, as was the willow.

On my walk half an hour agoI heard a blackbird, a robin and various tits singing, along with the trilling voice of the chaffinch; they are all making the most of the weather too.

In the garden this morning's sun has brought out the first of the species crocus sent to us some years ago by our friends in the Netherlands, F and R, and walking through the front garden I see that many of the tulips they sent are already poking through too.The Winter jasmine is coming into bloom, and I can really say that three days of sunshine has made everyone and everything feel better.

They are re-surfacing the road into our little market town and they have scraped the old tarmac off and heaped it into the yard of our neighbour, who is a haulage contractor. He will no doubt deliver it on to various people in need of the stuff. The farmer is certainly in need of some to re-surface the track down our big pasture. So this afternoon he is going to go round and load some up on to his trailer and get on with the job while it is dry. But first he has to empty the culvert in the yard where our friend washes down his lorries every day. The lorries get filthy, particularly at the time of the year when the roads are so dirty - and every morning these lorries go out in an immaculate condition, which means lots of washing down. So the farmer and the contractor decided to exchange cleaning the culvert for a load of tarmac to tidy up the track. This is the kind of transaction I like - it is called being good neighbours.

I admire you, that in spite of the sore knee you do so much work! But it's wonderful that you enjoy the signs of spring! In my small backyard there are already a few snowdrops poking out of the soil.I hope that your knee and ankle will soon be less painful.

Bad health has made me wind down a bit Pat, but I am amazed, reading this how wonderfully active you and your neighbours are, in spite of injuries - from washing down lorries, to carting, farming, toiling away in all sorts of weather conditions. You sound a very fit farming community - and a lovely supportive one.I very much enjoy your descriptions of the English landscape and changing seasons.